Invoking Dr B R Ambedkar and his conversion to Buddhism, BSP chief Mayawati Saturday urged Dalits “to see through the BJP’s ploy of calling them part of Hindu religion only to lure them for votes before the Lok Sabha elections”.

Addressing a rally on the outskirts of Lucknow, she said BJP leaders are visiting the bastis of Dalits and telling them they are Hindus to “mislead” them and get their votes. These very leaders would not want to enter those bastis once the elections would be over, she stressed.

“I want to tell you people, especially Dalits, that the BJP leaders are now telling you that ‘you are our Hindu and BJP is uniting all Hindus’. But had these people not practiced untouchability and casteism, they would not have had to do all this,” she said at the rally held in support of party candidates from Lucknow and Mohanlalganj Lok Sabha seats.

Explaining why Ambedkar adopted Buddhism, the BSP chief said: “Babasaheb studied all religions. He found his people will never get respect in Hindu religion because of untouchability and casteism. So he adopted Buddhist religion on October 14, 1956, along with his followers.”

”BJP calls Dalits as Hindus only during elections and eats in their utensils but later when they visit those Dalit localities they will cover their faces. They hate you so much,” the former UP CM said.

She said the BJP was afraid of failing to form the government if Muslims supported the BSP, which is why it is claiming that Ambedkar was against Muslims to divide Dalits and Muslims.

“Had Dr Ambedkar been against Muslims, he would have drafted a Constitution based on Hindutva and not a secular Constitution. Whatever security that Muslims have in this country, is because Babasaheb drafted a secular Constitution,” Mayawati said.

She urged the Muslims to “play a special role in stopping the BJP from coming to power by unitedly voting for the BSP”.

Mayawati also tried to take credit for awarding of Bharat Ratna to Ambedkar by the V P Singh government in 1990, implementation of Mandal commission report, and preventing LK Advani’s rath yatra from entering UP. She said the BSP had put these three conditions before VP Singh and when he accepted them, her party’s three MPs had supported his government from outside.